Daniel Boone School Board: Progress made on diversity

BIRDSBORO — Daniel Boone Area School Board members and parents agreed Monday that the district’s Diversity Ad-Hoc Committee has “made progress” since a February incident involving racial slurs discovered in a school rest room.

The Diversity Ad-Hoc Committee was established in April after racial slurs were written on a mirror in a Daniel Boone High School men’s bathroom on Feb. 29.

The committee includes board members, district staff, community members and students.

The board and community members also criticized recent newspaper coverage of the incident and the district’s attempts to improve racial tolerance.

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Board member Walter P. Sheehan said an Oct. 5 article in the Reading Eagle incorrectly portrayed the results of the Oct. 4 Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting, which focused on the district meeting Adequate Yearly Progress with the No Child Left Behind Act, the success of its recent advanced placement test results, and discussion of additional ways that diversity could be taught in high school English and social studies classes.

He said the book “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and the movie “Glory” are already being shared with students, along with preparation and decompression discussions, discussions of the time periods, the movie’s portrayal and discussions of the use of words that are now considered offensive.

Sheehan said the committee discussed that diversity curricula could include the Tuskegee Airmen, the film “Red Tails,” World War II and The Holocaust.

“The take-away of the meeting was supposed to be that the students were policing the situation (following the Feb. 29 incident)” said Sheehan. “We talked to the teachers and asked how the students were handling it (the incident) and they are policing their own. AYP and AP exam scores weren’t discussed at all in the article.”

“I was disturbed by the article because I thought we were making progress,” said Marianne Worthington of Douglassville.

Monica Lacey, also of Douglassville, agreed. “The last Diversity Committee meeting felt really good with student communication and progress made.”

She added that the students on the Diversity Committee are not the same students affected last winter by the racial slurs.

“We asked them (the students) how they felt,” said Sheehan. “The students policed their own and it was based upon peer pressure. They (students) let them know that was not acceptable behavior. Not a single student or school board member thought the issue was blown out of proportion.”

“The meeting wasn’t portrayed in the manner of the positive aspects of the (Diversity) committee,” said Douglassville resident Robert Smith.

Superintendent Gary L. Otto said he would contact the Reading Eagle and ask for a retraction of that article.